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Chance for everyone to pull together
Rowing clubs find popularity with youths
Paul McHugh, Chronicle Outdoors Writer
 Thursday, December 11, 2003
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle



The amiable jumble of a teenage slumber party sprawled across a concrete floor. Mats and sleeping bags were heaped about knots of kids engaged in video, card and board games. Beats oozed from a CD boom box. One girl scrawled a belly-button tattoo upon another, using a Sharpie pen. A young couple dozed, their hands joined.

"Everything that coaches told me when I first visited this boathouse has come true," said Frank Kishton, a parent chaperon. "Like seeing these kids learn teamwork, discipline and show real grade improvement. Plus, that so many of us parents would find ourselves getting completely immersed in volunteering to help out."

That boathouse floor was just a sideshow. The windswept surface of Lake Merced provided the main scene: A pair of eight-seat rowing shells, their oars sweeping like legs of well-coordinated water bugs, chased each other through a light rain -- a race that would continue for the next 24 hours.

Kishton's reference was to a get-acquainted meeting in fall of 2000, when Joe Mees -- co-founder of the Pacific Rowing Club -- had made a pitch for parents to get their kids involved with rowing. Kishton complied. He says his daughter, Rachel, subsequently overcame a learning disability to pursue straight A's. And now, she's being courted by Yale, both for her academics and her strength at crew (rowing).

Mees and Bebe Bryans together launched the rowing club in 1980. The PRC has shown its colors of a red field and a white slash on oar blades at San Francisco's Lake Merced ever since. Now, 100 teenagers from 24 San Francisco and Peninsula high schools take part. Last weekend, PRC held its annual Row-a- thon, the main fund-raiser for acquiring new equipment. After gaining pledges from friends and relatives, student rowers compete for 24 straight hours, making laps on the long, oval lake all through the night.

"Rowing at high school and college levels is growing throughout the U.S., especially women's programs," Jim Devine said. His daughter Maggie took up crew four years ago, and Devine himself volunteered as an outreach and registration coordinator.

"We had two boats qualify for the nationals last year," Devine said. "Out of 23 clubs in the Southwest Region (California, Arizona, Nevada), we now rank fourth."

Out by the docks, team coach Wayne Rickert -- who works as a third- grade teacher -- watched cold rain slant through the fading light.

"This is the roughest Row-a-thon I've seen in six years," he said. "If it gets much worse, we'll have to pull kids off the water."

Meanwhile, he enjoyed watching his charges demonstrate an unyielding persistence.

"Many kids sign up for rowing for the camaraderie," said Rickert. "Most of our recruiting occurs from kid-to-kid, by word-of-mouth.

"After they stick with this for a while, the personality trait you see emerge in them is determination." Bob MacLean, a truck driver, was on Mees and Bryan's initial team. He's now the men's coach. MacLean said another element that youth find attractive is that crew has no star system. Success does not ride upon the shoulders of one swift quarterback or a talented pitcher.

"Everyone must pull together in that hull. You all win or lose together. It's like tug o' war," MacLean said. "Except, our gear is much more expensive."

"Yeah, right. We've got to quit this," Rickert joked. "Get everybody on a rope."

Darkness cloaked the lake, cold wind rumpled its surface, the downpour thickened. Rickert finally called for a warm-up break.

Steered by coxswain Brita Potenza, a long shell glided before the wind up to the dock. Its shivering crew disembarked. "Head, up," Potenza said. Her firm, confident commands belied her 15 years and petite size. "Shoulders, split." Her team responded in unison, bearing their craft up onto shore.

The top floor of the boathouse held a dark, defunct restaurant, a dank cave waiting for the city of San Francisco to figure out what to do with it. However, the yawning boat bays one level down were nests of light, activity and warmth.

Parents stood by a table laden with trays of lasagna, waiting for it to heat up enough to serve. To one side, a study table was crowded with students poring over their textbooks. In the main bay of the boathouse, a thermometer poster indexed fund-raising results.

Last year, a total of $40,000 was raised, enough to purchase a stout pickup to draw the team's boat trailer. This year, so far, enough checks had been cashed to score a new Pocock Eight shell ($18,500). As checks were cashed, the red "mercury" slowly rose toward this year's $50,000 goal.

Maggie Devine, 17, was participating in her fourth and last Row-a-thon. She's readying herself to depart the nest of the PRC and go on to crew at college. Devine says rowing is infamous among kids at her high school for what she calls, "the morning thing" -- rising at 4 a.m. each day to train on the water from 5 to 7 a.m. Those who survive that challenge must still go on to master discipline, personal organization and time management, she said.

Then, there are physical demands. "Your first year, your hands just feel ripped apart," said Devine's pal and shell mate, Emily Gill. "And your back suffers, until you get strong enough.

"But the great part is this network of friends I have now. You really make them fast, because you spend so much time with them."

Blaise Didier, tall, trim and square-shouldered at 15, reinforces these points. "I'm not coordinated enough for basketball, and a real butterfingers at football," Didier said. "I found my niche in rowing.

"I had a bit of a belly last year when I started. Now my abs are getting pretty tight. I see guys at school struggling to go up steps; it feels great to be able to just flow right up stairs.

"My entire day consists of crew, school, food, homework and sleep. There isn't anything else. I've got maybe four guys I hang with at school. But here, there's maybe 60 people I can relate to, and that's real nice."

Eventually, Didier hopes to see his improving grades and rowing exploits provide entry to the college of his choice. He does not see eventual participation in the Olympics on a U.S. team as anything out of reach.

"Blaise has swiftly gone from being a kind of couch potato to becoming an amazingly disciplined and dedicated person," said his mom, Roberta Didier. "And that's not due to any urging from me. Success at rowing is something he wanted for himself."

Plenty of places in this city, state and nation one can find overweight kids who have attention deficits, kids with no idea of what to do next, kids with no real notion of what they want.

But at Lake Merced on Saturday night, there were 100 other kids who seemed to fully grasp what was going on in their lives. As soon as the rain ceased, they were going to head right back out on that dark water and row under moonlight and stars.

Rowing info

Parents interested in rowing programs for youth won't find it easy to get directly involved at first, as clubs tighten focus on spring competition. The best procedure is to take kids to observe spring events, mingle and allow their interest to develop. In summer, recreational and fitness rowing classes will help them get launched. In fall, clubs generally accept novices and begin to shape their teams.

Local club and school contacts can be found by using the Links button at the Pacific Rowing Club's Web site: www.pacificrc.org. The site also lists the 2004 local calendar and schedule. The PRC message phone is: (415) 242-0252. More information on mid-Peninsula programs can be found at www.peninsulajuniorcrew.org, with additional links at www.peninsulajuniorcrew.org/swjra.htm. An East Bay option can be found at www.oaklandstrokes.org.